Uninsured have new chance for coverage

Those facing penalty are targeted

Uninsured people who are now realizing that they could face penalties for forgoing coverage have another chance to sign up through the federal health insurance marketplace beginning Sunday.

Federal officials said Friday that uninsured consumers again can go to the website healthcare.gov, phone the federal call center or seek in-person assistance between Sunday and April 30 to enroll in coverage during an extended open enrollment period. The special sign-up period applies to those who owe a fee for being uninsured in 2014, were unaware of the Feb. 15 deadline to enroll in 2015 coverage and have not yet signed up for insurance.

“Our focus is on a minority of people who are paying a (2014) fee and have not been aware of the fee,” said Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the agency that oversees the health insurance marketplace.

He and other officials discussed the special open enrollment period Friday during a conference call with reporters. It was unclear how many people nationwide could be eligible to sign up for coverage by April 30.

Officials announced last month that they would reopen the health insurance marketplace to accommodate those who discovered they would be penalized for being uninsured as they filed their 2014 tax returns. The 2014 tax year is the first to require all filers to document whether they had health coverage.

Those who were uninsured in 2014 face penalties of $95 per person per household or 1 percent of household income, whichever is greater. The fine increases to the greater of $325 per person per household or 2 percent of household income.

“We are not in the business of collecting fees or penalizing people,” said Kevin Counihan, the health insurance marketplace’s CEO. “(The special enrollment period) is intended to get people who are unaware of the fee to get the opportunity to enroll.”

Nationwide, almost 11.7 million people selected health plans between Nov. 15 and Feb. 15 during this year’s open enrollment period. An estimated 1.2 million of those consumers were Texans.